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| Loss of Balance between T Helper Type 17/Regulatory T Cells in HIV Infected Chinese Patients |
| LI Dan; JIA Man-Xue; LIANG Hua; PENG Hong; LIU Dong-Hua; ZHAO Yang; SHAO Yi-Ming |
| State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for AIDS/STD Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing102206, China |
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Abstract The aim of this study is to characterize the changes in interleukin 17 (IL-17)-secreting T helper type 17 (Th17) cell frequencies and CD4+CD25hiFoxP3+ regulatory T (Treg) in a cohort of chronic human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected patients in China, and to clarify the role of Th17/Treg imbalance in HIV pathogenesis. A total of 54 untreated chronic HIV-infected individuals and 32 healthy donors were recruited in this study. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from EDTA-anticoagulated fresh whole blood and stained to characterize Th17/CD4 and Treg/CD4. Our results indicated that the depletion of Th17 cells (0.68±0.35 vs 1.42±0.86, P<0.001) was accompanied by an increased Treg cells (6.15±2.12 vs 4.50±0.76, P<0.001), resulting in a loss of Th17/Treg balance in HIV infection (0.12±0.07 vs 0.31±0.17, P<0.001). Additionally, Th17/CD4 was positively correlated to CD4 T cell counts (r=0.371，P<0.05), Treg/CD4 was inversely related to CD4+ T cell counts and positively correlated to plasma viral load (r=-0.402, 0.447; P<0.05, <0.001). A positive correlation was observed between Th17/Treg with CD4+ T cell counts and Th17/Treg was negatively correlated to viral load (r=0.525, -0.318; P<0.001, <0.05). These results indicate that a loss of immune-balance during HIV-1 disease progression may have a critical role in HIV-1 infection and further shed new light into understanding the pathogenesis of HIV-1.
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Received: 11 April 2011
Published: 25 June 2011
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Corresponding Authors:
SHAO Yi-Ming
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